Wanyan Hongxi

Wanyan Hongxi

Contents

Wanyan Hongxi (simplified: 完颜洪熙, traditional: 完顏洪熙, pinyin: Wányán Hóngxī, jyutping: jyun4 ngaan4 hung4 hei1), Prince Rong (荣王 — Róng Wáng), was the third son of Wanyan Jing, the Mingchang Emperor of the Jin, and the elder brother of Wanyan Honglie, Prince Zhao.

Biography

Mission to the steppe

Fearing that Wang Khan and Temüjin were growing too powerful in the north, the Jin emperor sent Wanyan Hongxi and Wanyan Honglie with ten thousand picked troops to confer titles on them, both to keep them in check and to gauge their strength.

On arriving at Temüjin’s camp, Wanyan Hongxi flung handfuls of gold coins at the Mongol children who had gathered to watch, expecting them to scramble for the money. None of them touched it. He threw another handful and swore at them in broken Mongolian, a grave breach of the Mongol rites of host and guest. The young Guo Jing picked up some of the coins and threw them back in his face, striking his cheekbone. Enraged, Wanyan Hongxi seized a spear from one of his guards and hurled it at the boy, ignoring Wanyan Honglie’s cry to stop; Jebe knocked the spear aside with an arrow. At Wanyan Honglie’s urging he let the matter drop, though he cursed the boy under his breath.

He read out the Jin emperor’s edict naming Temüjin Commissioner for the Pacification of the Northern Marches of the Great Jin, hereditary for his descendants. At the banquet that followed, half drunk, he rudely refused Temüjin’s request for a title for his sworn brother Jamukha, saying that the Jin did not have enough posts to give one to every Mongol, and flared up when Temüjin offered to give up his own.

The Naiman attack

On the way to Wang Khan’s camp, the Jin party lay asleep long after the Mongols had formed up, and Wanyan Hongxi kept the column waiting while he drank and ate. When thirty thousand Naiman barred the road demanding titles of their own, he panicked, and as the enemy charged he urged his brother to give them any title they wanted. After Temüjin and Jamukha routed them, he joked that the Naiman should be given the title “Commissioner of Defeat and Flight”.

At Wang Khan’s camp

When Wang Khan came out and knelt before the two princes, Wanyan Honglie dismounted to return the courtesy, but Wanyan Hongxi merely cupped his hands from the saddle. He spent the banquet wondering how to ask Wang Khan for two of the dancing slave girls. Eager to see Senggum’s hunting leopards fight Temüjin’s Four Heroes, he offered a ruby ring to Tchila’un if he could kill them bare-handed; when the fight did not happen, he asked Wang Khan for the two slave girls and went back to his tent. Temüjin later held a farewell feast for the two brothers.

Personality & traits

Wanyan Hongxi was arrogant, quick to anger and careless of others’ customs. In China he was said to kill anyone who crossed him. He was also cowardly in the face of real danger, and less shrewd than his brother, who repeatedly had to restrain him.

Relationships

Wanyan Honglie

Wanyan Honglie, the emperor’s sixth son, was his younger brother and called him “third brother” (三哥). Honglie tried to stop him throwing the spear at Guo Jing and signalled to him in vain when he insulted Temüjin.

Behind the scenes

Revisions

In the 1st edition, the third prince sent with Wanyan Honglie (then called Wanyan Lie, 完颜烈) was Wanyan Yongji (完颜永济), who had made an earlier, unsuccessful attempt to confer the titles. The 3rd edition replaces him with Wanyan Hongxi, Prince Rong.

Historical foundations

The historical Wanyan Hongxi was a son of Emperor Zhangzong of Jin (reigned 1189—1208). He died in infancy, under his childhood name Wanyan Elubu, and his titles, including Prince Rong, were conferred later. The novel’s adult prince is fictional.

See also

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